Something Rhymes with Purple - We are 100 today! Let’s party!

Episode Date: March 2, 2021

Welcome to the party Purple People as we celebrate reaching our 100th episode - we promise that it is going to be full of pep, zest and pizazz!  Featuring booze, banquets and cockerels, Susie will take us on a tour of all the eating options at this bash from canapés to buffets, Slap-up meals to a Jacob’s Join whilst Gyles recounts tales of private soirees with the queen and punting parties of the Oxford scholars. Talking politics is strictly prohibited as it has been a LONG time since a party was only associated with political membership, so let’s get on our dancing shoes and join in the shin-dig, but whilst trying to avoid too many shins whilst we are dancing away!  Warning: This episode comes with a Party Pooper spoiler.  A Somethin’ Else production. If you have any wordy wonderings or linguistical lamentations you’d like to ask to Susie and Gyles, you can ask them by emailing [e-mail]. Susie’s Trio:  Stultilioquent - prone to foolish talk or babble  Woofits - unwell feeling, especially a headache and also a moody depression  Forblissed - filled with happiness Don't forget to come and see Gyles and Susie in action as Something Rhymes With Purple goes LIVE and ONLINE in 2021. Thursday 25th March 2021 7.30pm (GMT) For tickets please go HERE! Expect bizarre word journeys, the gruesome origins of everyday phrases, celebrity name-drops aplenty… plus a live Q&A with Gyles and Susie on the night.We look forward to seeing you there! Our fabulous new range of merchandise is now live at https://kontraband.shop/collections/something-rhymes-with-purple PLUS for this first week we are giving you 10% off all items if you use the code purple2021. So whether you’re buying a treat for yourself or a gift for a Purple loved one then now is the time to do it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Something else. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Hello, and thank you for downloading this, our 100th episode of Something Rhymes With Purple. As if that wasn't exciting enough, a quick announcement from Susie and me, the tickets to come and see us live are now available. Yes, if you'd like to be involved with a recording of the show, packed full of extra special moments and a live Q&A with us, then please head to www.citizenticket.co.uk or follow the link in this programme description and on your podcast feed. Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us. Happy birthday. Something rhymes with purple. Happy birthday to us. This is Giles Brandreth saying to Susie Dent, congratulations, Susie,

we've survived episode 100 of our podcast. What do you make of that? I think it's incredible. And no one's going to believe me when I say this, but it honestly doesn't feel like a hundred. As I've said before, this has been my absolute comfort blanket during lockdown, because particularly during the first lockdown, we had nothing else, did we Giles, really? And I so looked forward to seeing you on my screen. And I've also said that in some ways I prefer doing it this way. I can't wait to see you again and have our little tube journeys where we kind of chat. But equally, there is something quite intimate about sitting in my study and just looking at people on a screen and just talking

directly to them. So, yeah, here we are. Well, look, let's begin with some thank yous because we've been doing this now for two years. We've reached the 100th episode. We've had some wonderful moments during that two years, particularly when last year we won the Gold Award as the best entertainment podcast. That was quite something. That was quite an accolade. It was a very exciting thing.

So we have to thank all the team who've made this possible. Steve at Something Else, who I first went to see to talk about the idea, and then the lovely team that he introduced us to. Without them, without all the people who make this happen, it wouldn't be happening. So we love the technical team at something else. But most of all, what's been fascinating for me has been discovering what I would call the community of language.

Language is fundamental. We began this because I remember when i was a child really hearing the great bertrand russell great philosopher explaining that language is what made human beings unique that it's only humans that speak in the way that we do you know cats well exactly well he used to say you know no matter how eloquently a dog anecdote. Well, exactly. Well, he used to say, you know, no matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest. Only words do that. And the truth is, particularly this last year,

when we've been internationally on lockdown, when people haven't been able to meet in the same way, it's made us realise how important words are and what communication is all about. I mean, a kiss is a kiss. It is a kiss and a hug is a hug and they're lovely things, but they have their limitations. Whereas words are without limit. You can do anything with language. And what I love about you, Susie, is though you wear your learning lightly, there is nobody in my view on the Earth, who knows more about the English language than you do.

That's so sweet of you to say. But I would also say, Jas, that in the course of our podcast, I have discovered so many gaps in my knowledge. So I have learned a huge amount over the last couple of years, because very regular listeners and the loyal purple people will know that very often I have to scurry to my keyboard to look something up in the oed and check because i don't know the answer and we did a chemistry episode and we both discovered how little we knew about anything how little we knew i've got a lot of homework to do there so what i really enjoy about this is how much i learn and again how much we learn from our listeners because very often they'll come up with the goods

so it is very sort of strange thing where we are talking into our screens at the moment. And, you know, I'm sitting at my desk with a microphone in front of me. It is actually incredibly interactive. And we have a really, really active communication going on with the purple people, which I'm really grateful. Well, today, what I thought we'd do is we'd throw a party. This is a party in honour of our 100th birthday. And I hope it's a party that doesn't result because there are no eats, except the ones you're making yourselves and no

drinks. We won't end up with cardialgia. Do you know what cardialgia is? Pain of the heart? It's heartburn. It's mild indigestion. Cardialgia. I prefer dyspepsia. It sounds like something, a serious disorder of the heart, doesn't it? But cardialgia is a light bit of heartburn. So you won't get that because we're not offering you any canapes. I think when we did food, you told me the canapes like a little bed on which you put a bit of food. Yes, but ultimately it goes back to the Greek for mosquito, conops, because it referred to the mosquito net around a bed. And then eventually was transferred to the bed itself

and then ended up on our plates with little bits of smoked salmon on top. So if this party, before we throw open the door and then we're going to, you've got to define the word party for me, but I want you before we go to the party to tell me what for you when you go to a party, what's your ideal party? What kind of drink do you want? What kind of food do you want? What kind of people do you want to find? Okay do you want what kind of people do you want to find okay well should i tell you about party first because it's actually part of a really big family in english and it's many many siblings some of which will be i think quite unexpected so it goes back to the latin pars meaning a part and it's the same latin source that gave us depart, particle, particular, participate, partisan, partition, and a party. And the party was first used in the sense of a political party. So it was kind of part of the

political landscape. So the idea was very much about membership. And it only developed the idea of a social gathering in the early 18th century. Oh, because so many words related to apartment, impart, impartial, all have the idea of a party in some way or a part of a whole behind it. So we're in the party spirit. That's good. We get to our party and I want to know from you,

when you go to a party, what food and drink do you want to find there? Drink would be, oh, I don't know, a glass of fizz. I've had several embarrassing episodes where cocktails were served and I have discovered that they are totally lethal in terms of my levels of inebriation. So don't offer me a cocktail at a party if you want me to stay standing up is my advice. Remind me of the origin of the word cocktail. Cocktail is one of the big mysteries of english etymologies no one quite knows some people look back to old recipes for weird concoctions into which sometimes cock cock whole cock whole

cockerels would be put or feathers as well mixed in but the most obvious answer to cut a really long story short is that actually a cock's tail, cockerel's tail, was used as garnish just to decorate the glass. But no one quite knows. Like the umbrella you might get in a modern cocktail, the little sort of paper umbrella that sits in it. People actually put a bit of cocktail in it. Yes. There is also a story involving a French chef called Coquetier, but none of them are proven, I'm afraid. All I can say is, for my constitution, they tend to go immediately to my head. Well, given I know you like a little bit

of name dropping, and given this is our centenary, let's do some... And I don't drop any names. You do all the name dropping. Well, exactly. You give us the meaty stuff about the etymology, and I do the name dropping. I am the dropee. Well, yes, I do drop your name everywhere I go and people are impressed that I do. Anyway, I thought I'd drop a good name to start with. I'm trying to think how grand can I go? It's got to be the Queen, right? Yes.

I was once caught at a private party in the corner of the room, realising there was only two of us standing in the corner of this room and it was the Queen and I. Can you imagine? And I'd had a very long day and I was quite exhausted and very hungry. And the Queen had a very long reign, and she looked quite exhausted, but she clearly wasn't hungry.

So when the canapes came by, because she was not having one, I didn't feel I could sort of put my hand out and take one. Because if the Queen doesn't have one, you can't be stuffing your face when you're there with the monarch, can you? And because it was a private party, she had put down her handbag. Now, this is relevant because those who know about these things will tell you, as I'm telling you now, that if you go to a function where the queen is present, she will always have her handbag over her arm. And there will also be at this function an equerry or a lady-in-waiting keeping an eye on the queen. And when she moves the handbag from one arm to the other,

that's the indication to the equerry or the lady-in-waiting that perhaps Her Majesty is ready to be moved on to the next person. So she can discreetly signal that maybe the conversation is at an end. So keep an eye out when you're next with the queen when you see her moving her handbag from one arm to the other, Susie. The moment she's introduced, probably, in my case. No, not at all. Look, you could talk to her about the Queen's English. It's her language, after all. People do talk about the Queen's English. That's true. Anyway, the point of the story is that I was stuck in a corner with the Queen, unable to eat the canapes, not sure what to drink.

And we had a pretty stilted conversation because she didn't have the handbag on her arm. She couldn't, as it were, signal that she wanted to be released. And I thought, well, she's the Queen. I can't very well leave her in the corner on her own, can I? So we struggled on. I kept getting it wrong. She said, what have you been doing today? Which is a good opener. I said, I've been in Wimbled on. I kept getting it wrong. She said, what have you been doing today? Which is a good opener.

I said, I've been in Wimbledon. And I said, have you been to? She said, oh, Wimbledon. So I thought, oh, well. She said, was it tennis? And I thought, no, it's December. Why would it be tennis? I said, no, no, the pantomime.

Oh. And then I thought, well, of course, she was once in a pantomime in the 1940s when she was a girl. So I thought, but is that a little bit impertinent to be talking about, you know, did she see herself as a pantomime? I thought, no, I can't go there. Anyway, we kept sort of coming to dead ends. And eventually, the canapes came round for the last time. And I was clearly refusing them. She looked at the canapes and said, no, no, no.

I said, no, no. I said, I'm a vegetarian. Oh, she said, that must be very dull. I said, oh, dear. And I said, my wife's a vegetarian, too. Oh, dear, she said. And then I said, my daughter's a vegetarian. And she said, oh, well, that is disappointing.

And that's how it came to an end. Somebody came over and rescued us, I think. Let's see who we've got at this particular party. We're throwing open the doors. Any centenarians who are there, welcome. What are you dressed in, by the way? I will probably be in my standard LBD. So my little black desk, desk dress.

That's lockdown for you. I haven't worn an LBD for a long time. Little black dress and some heels. How about you? I'm going to be wearing my Princess Diana jumper. Oh, yes. I designed this jumper about 40 years ago with my friend George Hosler when I used to wear jumpers on TV in the 1970s and 1980s. And it's got on the front, I'm a luxury. And on the back it says, few can afford. Yeah. Did you get a massive uptick in sales after the crown appearance or isn't it yes a huge uptick in sales just fantastic but people will know that not only are you an amazing name dropper but you're also the most brilliant effortless

consummate plugger of your things and i'd love you for it because i just i just can't do it well people love to have this jumper and you can indeed get it. Go to GilesandGeorge.com since you kindly mentioned it. I think it's GilesandGeorge.com and you can find the sweater there. Did you know I had a book out? Indeed, you mentioned that. I want to talk more about the books later. But anyway, the point is we're going to this party. I'm wearing my jumper. And the reason I'm wearing a jumper is it's got words on it. It's something to talk about. You need a hook. Anyway, let's see if there are any centenarians at our party. And in fact, that's the first person we're meeting.

Here is somebody called Erik Stadnik. Hello, Erik. Thanks for coming to the Century Party. He's saying, why do we throw a party? It's a really good question. And there is a theory attached to this that it's somehow linked to a Norwegian word, tosser, not meaning to throw with force. But actually, if you look in the OED, it will simply say that it is to give the implication of spontaneity and exuberance and kind of impetus and effort. So it's as simple as that, really. That's why we throw a party. And it goes back to 1908 it's the whole idea of pizzazz and fizz and zest and pep and energy and all that stuff gosh have

you got origins for all of those words pizzazz oh pizzazz is all about the sound oh pep is a shortening of pepper yes so it's just like if you say something is mustard, or we used to, if you were North American in the 1950s, you'd say. As in cuts the mustard. That's the mustard. That means it's full of zest and zing. And cutting the mustard, the cutting there is the idea of cutting a fine figure. So you kind of are up to scratch, if you like, up to the notch. That's where that goes back from.

So, yeah, that's pep. What else did I say? Zing is sound zest is to do with lemon zest yeah i think that was it i'm looking glazed not because you're boring me but because oh in the corner tapio christiansen is here and tapio is waving at me sir i'm so sorry suzy i've just got to go over and speak to tapio hello tapio now tapio wants to know where the word fate comes from as in f-e-E-T-E, as in a garden fete, a celebration of fete, champêtre. I bet it's an abbreviation, something to do with feast, is it?

Well, it's a sibling of feast. I mean, it goes back to the French fete, meaning to celebrate. But they also had fest, which was indeed a feast. From there, it meant a festival or a fair. So we still get the kind of village fetes today. But it is all to do with celebration. And when we fate somebody, of course, we are celebrating them. This is probably an example of how we've changed the sound because perhaps the French sounded a bit unfamiliar on our tongues. So fest and fete then became fate for us. Probably rhymed it with something we already knew. Fest and Fet then became Fate for us.

Probably rhymed it with something we already knew. Tapio is one of our North American listeners and tells us that in the US it's pronounced Fet. Oh, there you go. But in English we say Fate. So often the Americans get it right. Ah. Yep. I've got one here.

Yes, go ahead. Which is quite similar from Stephen. So thank you for all, be it invisible and remote members of our party. It's lovely to hear from Stephen. So thank you for all, be it invisible and remote members of our party. It's lovely to hear from you. And please, everybody keep sending emails in, which we will come to in our future episodes. But Stephen has asked, the medieval use of the word banquet originally meant the very end of the meal. Is that right, please? Love the show. Now, we talked about this in our last episode, didn't we? And the importance of benches in English, because a banque, B-A-N-C, is a bench in French, hence a shower bank. You know, the sort of the cars, the ones with kind of seats at the back.

And a banquette or a banquette in French was indeed a long bench, but not necessarily a really basic and rudimentary one, but one at which lots and lots of guests would sit, you know know even in kind of really posh dinners if you like so I'm just looking up in the OED now as to whether it was the last meal it certainly does go back to the idea of a bench says here feast a sumptuous entertainment of food and drink but that was its first meaning in the 15th century when it came into English. So it doesn't here say that it was the last meal to be had. But of course, mealtimes and those kind of occasions have given us so many different expressions in English. We've talked before about humble pie, which was a play on words centuries ago of umbles, which were the entrails

and the kind of poorer cuts of meat that might be served that was an umbels pie we've got the parasite parasite from the greek for sitting beside someone at a table and pinching their food you've got a mate who is somebody who with whom you shared your meat at a table this act of sitting down to eat has given us so many different words in english but banquet is one of them I don't know if it did historically mean the very end of a meal. I'm going to check with my historian friends and get back to Stephen on that one. I like a slap up meal. Becky Bevan is here and Becky is saying that her hubby asked her this a few weeks ago. Why do we have a slap-up meal as a celebration?

Yeah, we have a slap-up meal, we think, because we like adding up to very many things in English, particularly when it's the idea of some sort of activity. I mean, that's a whole episode in itself is prepositions and where we put them and just how gnarly and confusing English is. But it began, and you will find this in Dickens, so you'll know this, Giles, you'll find references to a slap-bang meal. And this was a meal that was served quickly, possibly at a sort of nice, cosy,

not-too-expensive eatery, where the food is banged down on the table and you slap your money down. So that was a slap-bang meal, and Dickens uses it in that way. But interesting, the first record in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1823 where it says slap up is used for bang up and that's northern this is a direct quote from a slang dictionary it says slap up used for bang up tis northern

so who knows there seem to be lots of different variations on the same theme but the sort of earliest similar formula that we have is a slap bang meal. Well, this is proving quite a bash. Gary Raspberry Jr. What a great name. Gary Raspberry Jr. Oh, how wonderful to be called Raspberry. I wonder why he's called Raspberry. I suppose. Do you think he's called Raspberry? Because in his family in the past, they grew raspberries. Or they grew raspberries. Or they grew raspberries. Or they had red hair, probably.

Possibly. Or his great-great-grandfather had one of those raspberry noses, one of those funny noses that looked like a raspberry. Or they liked delivering raspberries, raspberry tarts. Blowing them. Raspberry tarts. Yes. Oh, that's the origin of raspberry. It's a raspberry tart.

Fart. It's rhyming slang for fart. Yes. I can do that. Okay. Raspberry tart is rhyming slang for fart. Yes. I can do that.

Okay. And what Gary wants to know is the, it's a synonym, obviously, for a celebration is a bash. Yeah. How did that come about? That's what Gary wants to know. Okay. Well, to have a bash, today we use it to mean, you know, having a bash at something is to have a go. And it kind of conveys in that sense the idea of just kind of, you know, doing something willy-nilly to just have a try. And it's the idea of sort of bashing on something to see if it will work but to have a bash back in the early

1900s was to have a good time or a spree or a party and this arose in North America and to be on the bash is a bit like our on the lash because it was on a drinking bout you'll find that in Scottish, English and Scots and New Zealand as well. But it can also mean soliciting as a prostitute if you were on the bash. And then a bash in jazz was a jam session. I mean, it's had so many different meanings over time, but it all goes back to the verb to bash, which is to strike with a heavy blow. So it's the idea of you know maybe getting raucous at a party and just sort of letting it all hang out or to do with as i say you have a bash at something or you're on the bash i mean so many different meanings but it goes back to that one germanic word when you were

a student suzy did they have mazola parties as they had in my day. Mazola? Isn't that corn oil? It is corn oil. Yeah, no, what's that then? A mazola party is basically where you all take your kit off and you cover yourselves in mazola oil. And you, yeah, it's true, and you dance about and then you have a shower. Is gullible in the dictionary? Do you seriously do this?

No. I'm so sorry. Would people of my vintage who are listening to this... Is this like an orgy type thing where you're completely naked and just sort of rubbed down in oil? No, but other people were doing it in later generations. It says the term came to prominence in North America in the 1970s following the sexual revolution of the 1960s. This is going to be in the sun tomorrow, Giles. And then by extension, any type of orgy

people i now realize what i should have chatted to the queen about cooking oil and participate in sexually permissive activities i don't know about that it was just slippy and slidy and fun the idea was at least look it's in the dictionary the point is you said who's gullible that i was fooling you about something it's genuine we had We had... Apparently it can involve bikini-clad oil wrestling. Ah, yes. Well, there we are. I would be grateful if anybody who is a purple person of my vintage, who does remember the Mazzola parties,

they don't need to have taken part. All picture, no pictures, thanks. No pictures, but recollections. Do please feel free to get in touch. It's purple at somethingelse.com. Market Mazzola Party so that Lawrence, our producer, can vet it before he lets Susie, because she's clearly of a sensitive disposition, read too much about it. But they were huge fun.

So what was the wildest thing you ever did at a party, darling? I think I have to tell you after. Oh, really? I think we've got enough of the tabloids from this episode alone did you go near barge parties or punt parties when you were at oxford not parties no because how many people can you get on a punt but no i definitely went out on a punt from time to time tried punting myself with little success and occasionally they were kind of you know treating the punts like dodgums and kind of deliberately bashing into you and that kind of stuff. But I think that's as raucous as it got. How about you? I dread to ask. I did go punting. And do you remember there's

that part of Oxford called Parsons Pleasure? Well, in the old days, the gentleman dons, many years ago, this is, we're talking about Oxford University now, and there's the river, maybe it's the Isis, I don't know, one of the rivers that goes through Oxford. Or the Chalwell, yeah. One of those two rivers. And there's a little sort of shady nook known as Parsons Pleasure, where Victorian dons, academics, often, and in those days they were clergymen, they would go and relax and do some naked sunbathing. And famously, so the story goes, the boat was going by and there were all the naked clergymen. And one of them, when they saw the people in the boat, they covered their private

parts. But one of them covered his face, explaining that in Oxford, he was known by his face rather than by his private parts. Anyway, that's by the by. I went punting and I stupidly held onto the pole, not realising I was supposed to take it out. And so I was conveyed into the water. I'm just looking this up in the gospel that is Wikipedia. And it seems like it's folklore, probably, but well-known folklore. And you're right about the, I don't know about you gentlemen, but they're not. I at least am known by my face. I think it's time for a break and time for you to go and check your cupboard and see if we've got any sunflower oil. Yeah, exactly. Put my clothes back on.

Hi, I'm Jesse Tyler Ferguson, host of the podcast Dinners on Me. I take some of my favorite people out to dinner, including, yes, my Modern Family co-stars, like Ed O'Neill, who had limited prospects outside of acting. The only thing that I had that I could have done was organize crime. And Sofia Vergara, my very glamorous stepmom. Well, I didn't want to be comfortable. Or Julie Bowen, who had very special talents. I used to be the crier. Or my TV daughter, Aubrey Anderson Emmons, who did her fair share of child stunts.

They made me do it over and over and over. You can listen to Dinners on Me wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is brought to you by LEGO Fortnite.

LEGO Fortnite is the ultimate survival crafting game found within Fortnite. It's not just Fortnite Battle Royale with minifigures. It's an entirely new experience that combines the best of LEGO Play and Fortnite. Well, welcome back to the 100th birthday party of Something Rhymes with Purple. I've recovered from my shock at various anecdotes from Giles in the first part. If you missed it, then definitely, depending on your disposition,

worth tracking back and listening to what he got up to in the 60s and 70s. But we have had some fantastic party emails from some of the wonderful Purple people. And it's great to have you at our party. And it is also fun to have a look at some of these that came in. Have you got a new one there, Giles? We're having quite a shindig, aren't we, here today? Because we're creating our own party, a bit of a hoolie.

We're on the lash. And in fact, Lorna Fitzpatrick is just one of several people who's made an inquiry via Twitter or by emailing us at purple at something else dot com. She wants to know the origin of the word shindig. Oh, yeah, that's a really good one. Now, I for years have been saying to people it was called the shindig because at these kind of parties and dances people really did dig their feet into your shins through incompetent dancing so that's pretty much what it used to say in the OED but there are now new theories because the Oxlindish dictionary the most wonderful book in the world

is constantly being updated the work on it will never finish even though it's a historical dictionary in that it looks back to the very first meaning of a word the work on kind of tracking its meanings to present day is always underway and so is with shindig because shindig first meant a violent quarrel or a tremendous fuss again that kind of would make you think well it is kind of like digging your whatever into shit people's shins but no because it may go back to shindy shindy was a form of dance amongst sailors, apparently. And that, in turn, might go back to a game that was pretty much like a rough version of hockey played in Ireland called shinty. I think it was played in Scotland as well. So it's kind of crossed between hockey and lacrosse.

Quite why that led to the idea of a party, we don't know. Perhaps they had parties after they'd played or perhaps, you know, there was something to do with shins and getting your shins knocked in this game and a kind of busy, crowded party that might also happen to you if you're not particularly good dancers. So the jury is out on that one, either to do with digging into people's shins or this Irish and Scottish game of hockey stroke lacrosse so yeah we don't quite know yet and also you mentioned hoolie there I should just say that I think Launders spelled hoolie h-o-o-l-i-e which is traditionally the spelling for a hoolie as in it's blowing a hoolie out there you know really really windy and that goes back to

Orkney Scots a hoolan which is a strong gale the hoolie that is a party again mystery we do not know that's about generally with the ey at the end as in having a hoolie no one quite knows but I love the sound of it to have a hoolie it just sounds like you're going to have a good time Al Healy speaking of hoolie it's Al Healy who's here and he says in nottingham shall we call a party or maybe it's just a work's due a fuddle how much further afield does it go and what is the root of fuddle when i saw this i immediately thought of the word befuddled because if you were befuddled you were kind of intoxicated and we use it today to mean a bit just confused generally but originally it was all about being befuddled

or in fact fuddled and it's defined brilliantly in the dictionary as to make stupid with tippling and we've definitely all been there but a fuddle in a party, I think, is very much like the idea of a sort of huddle in that you kind of get together with people. Definitely a dialect word. Fuddle also did mean drink or liquor or booze. So I can only imagine that it originally described a drinking bout and from there just a general kind of party. And in its booze sense, booze is, you know, a 17th century word came to us via Dutch. So really, really old. In that sense, it goes back to the 17th century. So the idea of being fuddled or being out on a fuddle has been around for a very, very long time. And I think it's from

there, the idea of being tipsy that the party sense emerged. Milo Mo on Twitter wants to know about the origins of Jacob's Join, which is an everyone brings something buffet. It's not an expression I'd heard myself and nor had Milo Moe until Milo moved north from Manchester to Cumbria. What is this Jacob's Join? Well, why Jacob? We're not sure. It does sound biblical, doesn't it? But definitely it's been attested for quite a long time. It's called the Gaiquf faith supper in church circles. So it's kind of, you know, everyone makes a contribution to a communal meal. And definitely up north, you'll find it in Lancashire, as Milo Mo says, you know, Manchester, Cumbria, etc.

No one quite knows why Jacob, but it's been around for, I don't know, good 50, 60 years, at least in documented English, and I suspect in spoken English before then. So if anyone knows why Jacob, I suspect they liked the alliteration with join, maybe a biblical reference there, but we're not sure. But certainly it's been around for a while. Somebody in the corner of the room is flashing the lights. They're a bit of a party pooper. They're telling us that we're running out of time. Oh, before we go, though, before we have the last dance, party pooper. Lots of people wanted to know about the origin of that. Party pooper. OK, so a pooper indeed was a defecator, I suppose. No, no, no, no. So it

absolutely isn't somebody who... No, does that at a party? That really would be. No, definitely not. A mazola party is one thing, but honestly, please. But a poop was also used as a nincompoop. It was short for nincompoop to mean there's just sort of, you know, a sad, stupid person, I suppose, that no one wants at their party. So a party pooper was originally somebody who spoiled the party. I guess that's still the sense that we have. But we tend to describe ourselves quite often as a party pooper, don't we? It's just like, oh, I'm, you know, I'm a bit of a wallflower.

I don't really enjoy parties, etc. But it definitely, I think, in this sense is probably an abbreviation of nincompoop. So, yeah, I think that's why we would call ourselves a party pooper which i think i'm probably far more than you do you know it's just looking up and my journey of discovery that i have had throughout this wonderful podcast journey to use that really awful word is buffet and why we call it a buffet because i was thinking is it remotely linked to a buffet which was a kind of blow as in blind man's buffet the game but no the buffet goes back to its use for a sideboard or a side table and then to the food that was shown on it. And the origin of that is

unknown. Lots of unknowns today. So sorry, I can't nail all of these, but they're excellent questions. We haven't played any party games. I know we've done a party games episode before, but we must have another celebration and we're going to play some old fashioned party games. Are you there, Moriarty? Charades, that kind of thing. Do you like a party game? I love charades, but it might be quite difficult for our listeners to work them out. We need verbal charades, don't we? Well, let's find a way of doing verbal charades. We've got so many more things to do. And also, thank you very much for being at our party today. If you've got ideas of subjects you'd like us to explore,

areas of endeavour, even if you take us out of our comfort zone. For us, it was very interesting when we went into the world of chemistry because neither of us knew very much and we learnt a great deal. So feel free to push us into places you think we haven't yet been and we will do what we can. Me to come up with a few old stories and Susie to come up with definitive definitions. Now, have you prepared? Susie, you must have given us, goodness, you must have given us 100 episodes. Then you've given us 297. You've given us 297 unusual words. So give us three more to take us up to 300. I've actually done a bit of a switch because your anecdote of your fairly laboured conversation with the Queen has made me think, don't take this the wrong way, stultiloquent. S-T-U-L-T-I-loquent.

Stultiloquent. And it means foolish talk or babble. Sorry, it's not the talk itself. It is prone to talk to speaking that way if you are stultiloquent. And I'm not saying remotely that that is what you do or how you are, Giles. It's certainly, I think, how both the Queen and I were stultiloquent on that occasion. So my next one is woof it. And I mention this because it's quite a good word for the morning after the night before.

So should you have had a good time at our party and been fuddling a little bit too much, you might have the woof-its, which is W-O-O-F-I-T-S. And it's an unwell feeling, especially a headache and also a moody depression. The woof-its. And I'm just going to finish with one of my sort of favourite words, really. I've discovered in the dictionary, the page, which has got got for on it because for is such a useful prefix in English and you can be for swunk if you're exhausted. You can be, what else can you be? For fooled if you've been duped. And this is a lovely one, for blissed. So why be elated or very happy when you can be for blissed? And is that F-O-R-E blissed or F-O-R blissed? Just F-O-R. For blissed. Yeah, Forblist.

So I'm hoping... What exactly does it mean? Just means filled with happiness and felicity. Forblist. Yeah. Good. Those are my three. There are three lovely ones.

And I think the last one, Forblist, takes us to the poem I want to share with you. I recently did an event for a wonderful charity called Waterloo Uncovered. an event for a wonderful charity called Waterloo Uncovered. And it's a charity for ex-service people who may be suffering from PTSD or physical injuries as a result of active service. And in this charity, they go back to the field of the Battle of Waterloo and they do archaeology together. And they've discovered amazing things about the Battle of Waterloo. But also it's really, it's therapy and it's community activity and it's a great charity. That's amazing. And for this evening, they had a party and a Zoom party.

And at it, I met Virginia McKenna, a wonderful actress who is going to be 90 this year. And she was in the film of Waterloo made, oh, I don't know, 40, 50 years ago with Rod Steiger, I think is Napoleon, and Christopher Plummer, the late Christopher Plummer, played the Duke of Wellington. Orson Welles was the French king. And she played the Duchess of Richmond, who gives the famous ball on the night before the Battle of Waterloo. Anyway, as a result of this... I should just, can I just interrupt and say i'm a massive supporter of born free her foundation i mean it's it's just the most fantastic charity that aims to free captive animals and to give them a new start in life and with her son will travers it's absolutely

brilliant so anyway yeah hats off to both of them hats off to both of them and you will be then particularly pleased with this we hadn't prepared this but as chance would have it, since you're a Born Free fan, you will be delighted to know that I'm going to read a poem by Virginia McKenna from a book she wrote called Tonight the Moon is Red. It's a collection of her poems and the proceeds go to the Born Free Foundation, which she started, which I think her son will, as you rightly say now, which she started, which I think her son Will, as you rightly say now, runs. And the poem I'm going to read is called Small Thoughts in Spring. And I'm reading it because Virginia McKenna, this lovely actress, is coming up to be 90.

And we're celebrating our century. We've been talking about centenarians. And this is Small Thoughts in Spring, written by somebody who's soon going to be 90. I am nearly 90. Sitting one evening, looking at the blossom, new life, spring life, and the fading sun, so gentle, so sweet.

I wonder if my day's ending will be like that. Who knows? And after all, 90 is wonderful, old, but wonderful. I am so lucky still to see the blossom, the fading sun, the new life. I am blessed. I know that. Oh, that's lovely. I know Virginia, she's still really active in Born Free Foundation, actually. So, yeah, definitely worth checking out. It's such a lovely thing. And we feel blessed, don't we? We feel blessed. We do. We feel blessed by the purple people. Yes, the purple people who are the very, very best.

And one day we will get to the purple people bridge and we will look down from it with all the purple people who are the very, very best. And one day we will get to the Purple People Bridge and we will look down from it with all the purple people friends. So the Purple Family, we've had a wonderful 100 episodes with you. If you've just joined our family, whatever you are in the world, there are now 100 episodes in our library. Feel free to dig back to hear some of my old stories all over again and to hear the brilliant etymological information that Susie gives us. Her brain is just bursting with fantastic information and it's coming your way. Unless I've got the woof-its.

Unless you've got the woof-its. Tell us. That's our lot. It is our lot. Something Rhymes with Pupples is something else production produced by Lawrence Bassett with additional production from Harriet Wells, Steve Ackerman, Ella McLeod, Jay Beale, the most important party member, Gully. And just thank you to all the team at Something Else for being with us for the last 100 shows. And yes, here's to the next 100. Here's to the next 100. Thank you all so much.